Race, Gender, and Ethnic Studies enable us to understand the lived realities of power, identity, and belonging, creating pathways toward equity and justice. Department scholarship addresses urgent issues surrounding discrimination, inequality, and oppression as well as imagines inclusive futures.

Assistant Professor Carolin Aronis shares a personal and urgent story about the day neo-Nazi groups appeared on the CSU campus, and how we make sense of symbols and acts of hate.

Aronis and Eric Aoki, Professor of Communication Studies, challenge the idea that swastikas and nooses are “just symbols.” Instead, they frame them as violent technologies, objects that don’t merely represent hate but actively create harm, fear, and exclusion. Their research asks: How do we ensure that Jewish, Black, queer, Muslim, and other marginalized students feel safe, supported, and fully part of our community? How should universities respond? Through her studies and personal observations from the campus march, Aronis shows that antisemitism, anti-Black racism, and white supremacy are not harmless relics of the past but present realities. Her story also shows precisely why race, gender, and ethnic studies, and the knowledge and practices to understand and transform systems of oppression, matters.